11.2. Process Management

The following sections describe the features provided by the options available under the Process Management menu in Business Central.
Process Management in Business Central

Figure 11.1. Process Management

11.2.1. Process Definitions

Once you have created, configured, and deployed your project comprising your business processes, you can view the list of all the process definitions in the Process Definition List under Process Management → Process Definitions. The process definition view comprises two main sections:
  • Process Definition Lists
  • Process Definition Details
The process definition list shows all the available process definitions that are deployed into the platform. If you click on any of the process definition listed in the Process Definitions List, the corresponding Process Definition details displays information about the process definition such as if there is a sub-process associated with it, or how many users and groups exist in the process definition. In the Process Definition details section, you can navigate to Options → View Process Instances to view associated process instances.

11.2.2. Process Instances

You can create new process instances from the Process Definition List, from the Process Definition Detail view or from the Process Instance view. When you create a new Process Instance, a new window opens that requires you to provide information required by the process to be started. Once you provide the required information and click on the Submit button, the instance is created and the details of the process instance is displayed in the Process Definition Details.
You can further manage the instance during runtime, monitor its execution, and work with the tasks the instance produces if having the proper roles assigned.
Additionally, Business Central allows you to easily sort and filter a list of tasks for any given process. You can create custom filters that allow you to define queries by user, business attributes (such as amount, customer segmentation), Process ID, correlation key and so on.
You can view the list of all the running process instances in the Process Instance List under Process Management → Process Instances. The process instances view comprises two main sections:
  • Process Instance Lists
  • Process Instance Details
The process instance list displays the process instances and this view is customizable. The customizable elements comprise columns that are displayed, number of rows displayed per page, name of the tabs, and title description. The views are available as tabs. When you click on a tab, the related parameters are applied to the data grid and the corresponding process instances are listed. You can remove the default tabs and add your own with the required filter criteria. The Process Instances view also has features like auto refresh and restore default views. Auto refresh allows you to define how frequently the data grid refreshes. You can select one of the different values (1, 5 or 10 minutes), or disable this feature by clicking the Disable button:
Features in the Process Instances List View

Figure 11.2. Features in the Process Instances List View

Each row in the process instance list represents a running process instance from a particular process definition. Each execution is differentiated from all the others by the internal state of the information that the process is manipulating. In order to view this information, you can click on any one of the process instance and view the corresponding details in the Process Instance Details section. The Process Instance Details provides several tabs with the runtime information related with the process.
  • The Instance Detail tab: This gives you a quick overview about what is going on inside the process. It displays the current state of the instance and the current activity that is being executed.
  • The Process Variables tab: This displays all the process variables that are being manipulated by the instance with the exception of the variables that contains documents.
  • The Documents tab: This displays process documents if the process contains a variable of the type: org.jbpm.Document. This enables easy access, download and manipulation of the attached documents. Note that you can not attach a new document to currently running instances.
  • The Logs tab: This displays business and technical logs for the respective end users. In order to track a process through the logs, you can also open the Process Model that shows the completed activies in grey and the current activities highlighted in red.

11.2.2.1. Searching Process Instances by Partial Correlation Key

To create a filter to search by correlation key or partial correlation key, do the following:
  1. On the top menu of the Business Central, go to Process Management → Process Instances.
  2. In the list on the Process Instances tab, click the button.
    The New Process Instance List dialog box opens.
  3. In the New Process Instance List dialog box:
    1. Provide the name and description for your search process instance list in the Labels tab.
    2. Click the Filter tab to create new query filter.
      1. Click Add New.
      2. From the list of filter values, select CORRELATIONKEY. If you want to create a search filter using partial correlationKey, select the like query operator and provide the value as partial-correlation-key% where partial-correlation-key is the value you are searching for.
      3. Click Ok.
    A new tab is created that displays your custom process instance list.

11.2.2.2. Searching Process Instances Based on Business Data

You can add process variables as columns in the process instance list in order to enable flexible filter definitions based on business data. To achieve this, do the following:
  1. On the top menu of the Business Central, go to Process Management → Process Instances.
  2. In the list on the Process Instances tab, click the button. The New Process Instance List dialog box opens.
  3. In the New Process Instance List dialog box, perform the following:
    1. Provide the name and description for your search process instance list in the Labels tab.
    2. Add a new query filter in the Filter tab:
      1. Click Add New.
      2. From the list of filter values, select processId and equalsTo.
      3. Provide a valid processId value and click Ok.
    A new tab is created that displays your custom process instance list in a tabular form. This new tab provides process instance variables (business data) as selectable columns. You can view the variables corresponding to each process instance in the table by enabling these columns, which are disabled by default.

11.2.3. Creating a New Process Instance List

To create a custom process instance list, do the following:
  1. On the top menu of the Business Central, go to Process Management → Process Instances.
  2. In the list on the Process Instances tab, click the button.
    The following New Process Instance List dialog box opens:
    New Process Instance List

    Figure 11.3. New Process Instance List

  3. In the New Process Instance List dialog box:
    1. Provide the name and description for your process instance list in the Labels tab.
    2. Click the Filter tab to create new query filter.
      1. Click Add New.
      2. From the list of filter values, select the appropriate filter condition and its value. You can add more filters by clicking Add New.
      3. Once you have specified all your filter conditions, click Ok.
    A new tab is created that displays your custom process instance list.

11.2.4. Aborting a Process instance

You can abort a running Process instance either using the provided API or from the Business Central.

Aborting a Process instance using API

To abort a Process instance using the Kie Session API, use the void abortProcessInstance(long processInstanceId) call on the parent Kie Session.

Aborting a Process instance from the Business Central

To abort a Process instance from the Business Central, do the following:
  1. On the top menu of the Business Central, go to Process Management → Process Instances.
  2. In the list on the Process Instances tab, locate the required Process instance and click the Abort button in the instance row.